On Sunday, 25 Coptic Christians were killed and 500 injured in clashes with the Egyptian army. Along with some sympathetic Muslims, they were protesting the burning of a church in Aswan. Paul Marshall, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, said the incident is an extreme example of the abuse Coptic Christians face every day. He discussed the latest events with Charles Lewis, the National Post’s religion reporter.

Why the sudden outburst of extreme anti-Coptic violence? Since the fall of Hosni Mubarak, the army has been ordered to break up demonstrations of all kinds. There is also a significant anti-Christian element in the army [and] increased frustration among the Copts as the rate of attacks on their community continues to increase. All this came together on Sunday. This was really a riot by the army. If you look carefully at the videos you see the officers trying to stop the violence, not ordering it.

Did Egypt’s state media play any role? The state media coverage was very bad and very biased. It talked about the Copts attacking the army and soldiers being killed. One presenter called on all loyal Egyptians to defend the army from the Christians. On Monday, the TV station withdrew the allegation any military had been killed or the Copts had launched an attack on the army.

Wasn’t there some hope the Arab Spring would change things for the Copts? So far it’s worse. You get rid of somebody and what will replace them is always an open question. At the beginning, many Copts were hopeful. But it would be fair to say they were more nervous than the average Christian of what may come after Mubarak.

What are the core issues that have caused anti-Coptic prejudice? There are three things. First, at the governmental level Copts have been considered second-class citizens. They need special permission to build or repair their churches, a rule that doesn’t apply to mosques. Imams are also paid by the state and government supports Muslim schools. There is no equivalent system for Christians.

There are many government jobs Christians cannot get and entrance to higher education is difficult. A Christian can become a Muslim very easily but it’s almost impossible for a Muslim to become a Christian.

Second, you get Islamist groups who say Copts should be kept in their place.

Third, there is a reluctance by the government to protect the Copts. This was also true of Mubarak. I don’t think the government orders the attacks, but when they take place the response is to cover it up. And as people are not usually prosecuted, this has built up tensions over the years.

Are the Copts really Egyptians or outsiders who came in at a later time? The Copts are as Egyptian as anyone else in Egypt. In fact, they are older. The official start date of the Coptic Church is 54 A.D. The church was there 600 years before Islam. It makes them one of the oldest Christian churches. Egypt was one of the most Christian countries in the world before Islam and home to some of the greatest Christian theologians the world has seen.

There are about nine million Copts in Egypt, or 8% to 10% of the population. Are they fleeing because of the violence? The short answer is: we don’t know. We know that churches in the United States, for example, are reporting refugees coming. But we don’t know yet what’s going on.

Why should we be concerned about the flight of Christians from Egypt? This is the largest non-Muslim minority in the Middle East. The Copts have been intellectual entrepreneurs in Egypt and the country will become more closed down without a strong Christian minority. The Christians look to the West more than the Muslims, which leaves open avenues for many new ideas.

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